interview by Jason Walsh
It was the early 1980s when a group emerged from the tough streets of Venice in Los Angeles to become one of the most influential hardcore punk bands of all time. In this place where gangs ran wild, the Dogtown boys were defining a generation with the underground skateboarding culture, surfers could be killed for being from the "Valley," and not a building in sight was free of graffiti, Suicidal Tendencies brought their brand of West Coast social and political commentary to an anxiously awaiting audience around the world. Songs like "I Saw Your Mommy," "I Shot Reagan," and "Institutionalized" became instant classics and anthems in the arising hardcore scene, that had freed itself from punk pioneers like the Sex Pistols and Ramones in search of something faster, harder, and stronger.
Now, almost thirty-years later, frontman and founder Mike Muir continues this tradition through all the adversity that has surrounded the band since its inception. Continually linked by the media and critics to gangs, violence, and "supporting suicide," Suicidal Tendencies has endured and evolved, seeing numerous lineup changes, but with the same singular goal: to point out the wrongs in the world around us and to continue the fight against them, while keeping the music fast and heavy.
This year has been a busy one for the band, touring extensively abroad and along the West Coast. But the band decided to close out the year with fifteen dates in predominately East Coast venues, touring with Madball and Whole Wheat Bread, as well as a few gigs with Terror and Death by Stereo.
I had a chance to talk with Muir before the tour began, to find out what it is that keeps him "still cyco after all these years."
JW: You guys just got back from Europe? How did that go and where did you go?
MIKE: We went to France for a couple weeks. We're probably one of the only bands that does things like that. Years ago we played Paris and a promoter there was talking about doing ten shows in France and we talked to our agent who was English and he said, "Ahh, nobody does that. The French are just crazy. Y'know they say things like that but it's not possible." We switched agents and we did it one time and one time did twenty shows in a month, all just in France. So, we just did that for a couple weeks and it was cool.
JW: So I'm assuming those folks over there dig you guys?
MIKE: Yeah, I guess when France is in its own world. When it loves you, it loves you, y'know. Jerry Lewis and Suicidal I guess. But, it's kind of a pattern that we've established and it always makes a lot of sense and we actually know quite a few people, so it's always been pretty cool.
JW: What made you guys decide to do this U.S. tour at the end of the year?
MIKE: Basically, I think it starts off the beginning of last year. I was actually in Australia and had my second back surgery and we got offered to do these festivals in Australia, these five shows, and so (my) back was feeling good, talked to the family and they said, "Well, now is about as good a time and a good a place to try it." So, called everybody up and said "Hey, can we get ready to do that?" So we did those dates and then we did a couple weeks in France in April, then May, went and did Europe. In the summer time, we headlined the three West Coast dates of "The Sounds of the Underground" tour. We did that and we started getting calls about doing some West Coast dates, so we did that at the end of the year. Once you start touring the States, then everybody else started calling so we were like "so, we haven't been back East for a long, long time." Tired of getting the nasty emails so we said let's go there before the record's out and for a band like us I think that's really important so that people can see we're there for the right reasons. Not just to be there, wait 'til the records out and you go there because there's a record out. The J-O-B thing. We're more out to make a statement and prove a point than to do a J-O-B.
JW: Now, going back to '81, did you ever think in your mind you'd be doing this, this many years later?
MIKE: No, y'know and the first I guess legitimate punk band thing we did was a Flipside interview and they said, "What do you think the band will be doing in five years?" and I go "I don't think we'll be a band." They said "Why is that?" and I go "Well, y'know we don't plan it out. It's not a career. It's not something like that and if you try to plan out a five-year plan or something and rushing for it and it doesn't work." They said, "Well, if you are a band, why do you think you'll be a band" and I said "Well, I'll be a band because I know we haven't regretted anything." They said "When will you stop?" and I said what I was saying before, "When it becomes a J-O-B," a JOB for people that can't spell (laughs) So, I think that's kind of the situation, we've never kind of looked at it that way. We've always looked at it as a challenge and an opportunity to do things different, where I think a lot of people, they follow what they do, and if it's successful, then they do it a little bit more and then they try to put a little more sugar on it, y'know. We've always kind of in a way turned our back on what other people thought was successful and redefined what's success on our terms which I think is far more important than musical terms. Going back to the early 80s through the 90s and 2000, there's a lot of "successful at-the-time" groups and trends and this and that, which people laugh at now, y'know, and no one takes serious. I don't want to be a momentary thing. It's a long-term thing which proves your viability.
JW: And is it still fun for you? Do you wake up and are you excited about still doing this?
MIKE: I think to me it's kind of a ball. Sometimes you don't realize things are happening. You know when I had the second back surgery, I pretty much thought that was it. It's interesting when you talk to people how the number one thing is people always say "Ahh, I wish I could have saw you guys one more time" and that kind of thing and tell the stories of what the band means and y'know, you kind of feel good. And then you go, I don't want to be nostalgic and stuff. I think I've found now that we've done quite a few festivals and things like that where you're playing sometimes in front of kids that don't know who you are because you haven't done a record in ten years. They're 14 years old, so they were 4 years old when you did your last record. They may have seen the Suicidal somewhere or heard about it but it doesn't fit into what their peers or the trends that their into and stuff, so they assume they must not like you because they don't know who you are, but they'll check it out, or maybe one of their cousins will. You know, afterwards you can see the change in attitude that they have. I think too, taking it a step further, is one someone is talking and maybe around a bunch of people and says "Yeah dude, I got your first record in '83" and they're like looking and you can see them using their fingers trying to count and they're like "What? Wait, how could you guys been a band for 25 years?" and y'know a couple of the guys in the band are 25 years old and that makes a difference too. I think the people realize that we're not just that old band that's just out there because they never went to school and they got nothing else that they can do. I think that's the thing with the band. Everybody musically and otherwise has a lot of things they've done and can accomplish and we want to be there to accomplish what we think is important and I think that comes across. So, after you do a show and you see that people, even sometimes people that are big fans of the band, that are going, "Ahh...I'll see you one last time" were like "DUDE! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT, MAN!" You can see the excitement that they have that even they're surprised and they're big fans. That's a great feeling.
JW: So obviously, you still believe in what it is you're doing?
MIKE: Ah, definitely. I think that now is kind of the excitement. It's almost like we really want the new record to get out. It's kind of like you feel like you got something special at the party and you're ready to bust it out and you're going to surprise a bunch of people and I think that's the way it should be. Piss off some people, surprise some people, annoy some people. You know what I mean. It's not going to be for everybody but there's going to be a lot of people that are going to be screaming and shouting and blasting it loud and I think that's important.
JW: When you were a young kid, 15-16 years old in Venice, how did this come about? How did you guys come about starting the band?
MIKE: When I was 16, I moved in with my brother in Venice and one of our friends had drums and they were going to kick him out of the apartment. His mom said "you got to get rid of these drums, they're going to evict me and stuff." So I said "ahh, bring them here" so we put the drums in our kitchen. Drums are something that anybody sees that they have to start hitting on them, y'know. They can't play but they just start pounding. Then (Mike) Ball is like, "I got a guitar and this and that." We kind of just got a few friends together and we're just messing around. It's kind of like someone just playing basketball at the park. They're not doing it to be in the NBA, it's just kind of fun. We used to have rent parties every month, charge people, get money, and pay our rent. So we were like, "well hey, one of the rent parties, hey you know what, let's just play at the rent party, we'll scare a bunch of people away and charge more people to come in (laughs) because it's kind of a small backyard." We did that and they got so big that we started renting out halls around where we were and the a lot of the people that were first getting into Suicidal with all the hand-drawn shirts and all that, were starting to get into the punk rock scene. So all of a sudden, there were these people who stuck out to the mohawk and leather jacket crowd. So, a couple promoters back in the day, back then they put ten bands on a bill, were like "oh, let's throw them on the bill." We'd open up, did about three or four shows, and after we played everyone left, and pretty much it went from there.
JW: In those early days before you guys were getting noticed around the country, was it pretty tough getting shows?
MIKE: Well, I think it depends on what you call shows. Like I said, what we did was we actually rented out halls and did our own shows. We started getting put on the shows in L.A. and then got to the point where we basically couldn't play anywhere because we got too big and kind of notorious and none of the big venues would have us play and there's no way we could play the small ones. We've always had a problem, to a certain degree, with certain venues in certain areas and playing and things like that. I'd say a lot of it has died down and the irony is a venue we were going to play in Worcester, Massachusetts, they said we could do it but Madball couldn't. We got a chuckle out of that so we passed on the venue.
JW: Why did they say Madball couldn't do it?
MIKE: I guess there must have been a problem or something before. I don't know. We just had a laugh. We're like going, "that's a first."
JW: That's funny. The Venice band is fine, but don't let those guys from New York play.
MIKE: (laughs) Yeah. We got a chuckle out of it.
JW: Coming into the New Year, you guys haven't put anything out in a while. Is there any talk about going in the studio and recording?
MIKE: We got the new records already done. We've already just mastered it this week. We got actually a number of things. We did a compilation that's got some new Suicidal, new Infectious Grooves and Cyco Miko that's going to be done pretty soon. We're just deciding how we're going to put it out and handle it. As far as records, we have distribution deal going. So, next year we got a live DVD, two Suicidal records, two Cyco Miko records, two Infectious Grooves records. All the stuff is from 80-100% done, so we got a lot of stuff on tap and I think it's going to be really cool stuff.
JW: Wow. That is a lot of stuff. And you guys are doing this all on your own label, the Suicidal Records label?
MIKE: Yeah, did it all on our label. Keeping us quite, quite, quite busy.
JW: It sounds like it. That's a lot of stuff. So, are you enjoying doing everything independently on your own label and all that and not having to deal with all the bigger labels and all the headaches that go along with that?
MIKE: Well y'know, honestly we never really had any problems too much with the majors. It was other people. We kind of had to steer them into our direction. We had more problems when we were on the independents before we got on the majors. When we started doing our own thing again in the late 90s, we had a lot more problems with independents. I mean I could tell you all kinds of stories of the majors being shysters, oh my gosh, independents are way more shysters and stuff. Some just crazy stuff. People just going bankrupt left and right. We had a situation where when we first started Suicidal Records, one of the distributors called us and said, "You have to bring the records! You have to! We'll give you a check! Bring it down today! We need it so bad! We meesed up! It's going to cost us jobs! You know four people will lose their jobs!" This whole pity story took down a few thousand records and then they went bankrupt so they were just doing a shyster maneuver on us and stuff. Doors were all closed on Monday and the check of course was no good. So, you have to deal with stuff like that and even going through getting our distribution deal, there's only a few, what we would call, reputable kind of distribution companies. You go through things and you just meet people, and it's not just the record, it's the way I grew up. You're just like, "What's that smell?" (laughs)
It's like, "Dude, I grew up in Venice, man. Don't try to pull that on me, y'know." It's just like principle, y'know, kind of like when you walk in to a place and a used car salesman comes up with that super fake smile and looks at you like you're stupid and you're going to be paying his bills and you're like, "Ah, dude. Don't pull that on me, y'know. I'm leaving." (laughs) It's life, y'know, and you have to always be on the lookout for bullshit, and in the same sense, you got way more work and it's all in your hands, so ultimately you have to do it because I don't want someone else making the decision or someone trying to talk me into something I'm not going to do, or trying to explain to somebody why I want to do something that doesn't make any sense to them but it makes sense to me and helps me sleep better.
JW: And it just seems like from what you're saying it just feels better for you to keep the control at home.
MIKE: Yeah, and it's weird because a lot of times you'll read things, not just music but anything, and you go, "that person is so full of crap." But for us, it's actually really no pressure because so few people sell records. People aren't buying records. It makes things so easy, whereas when you're on a major or when in the past, you got to do that record every year or two years and the tour and setup before the record's out. It's just like a daily schedule planner and it's just kind of like "what I do today" kind of thing. I think sometimes that makes things tougher and I think for us it's like we're putting out a record for the right reason because we think there's a lot of people that are going to hear it, not only are they going to like it a lot, but it's going to give people a lot of ammunition to compare Suicidal with other things that they like, but they don't have a chance to hear what we're doing. I think it's going to tighten up the game, so to speak, and there's a lot of people that I think some of the songs definitely will do them a lot of good hearing. There's a lot of times when things happen and you just listen to people's conversations and you go, "Dude, I would love to give them this song right now because it totally applies." I think it's the proud papa so to speak kind of thing. I think it's also, like my Dad sometimes, the truth is out there and you're not going to kick someone when they're down but kick them because they're not getting up, and it reminds them that they need to get up.
SUICIDAL/MADBALL Tour 2008
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